Parah, Chapter 2, Mishnah 3. This chapter is occupied with the question of which cows are acceptable as a parah adumah and which are ruled out. Our Mishnah opens with three animals whose very origin or history is problematic, and then turns to a second category of disqualification altogether: things that were done with the cow, which strip it of its fitness.
"Yotzei dofen, ve'esnan, umechir, psulah": a cow that came out through the wall of the womb, one given as an esnan, and one given as a mechir, are all unfit.
The three disqualified animals
A yotzei dofen is a calf that was not born through the womb in the normal way, but was delivered through the side of the mother, what we would call a caesarean birth.
An esnan is an animal that was handed over as the fee of a harlot, payment to a woman who hires out her body for forbidden use.
A mechir is an animal a person acquired by bartering a dog for it, so that the beast stands in place of the dog it was swapped for.
The Mishnah's ruling is that in all three cases the cow is unfit, exactly as such animals are unfit for the other kodoshim, the animals that are consecrated and brought as korbanos.
Rebbi Eliezer disagrees
"Rebbi Eliezer machshir": Rebbi Eliezer holds that the latter two, the animal taken as a harlot's fee and the animal acquired in trade for a dog, remain valid for the parah adumah. He learns this from how the Torah frames the prohibition. Scripture bars a person from bringing either of these into the Sanctuary of Hashem; the ban, in other words, is tied specifically to what is carried inside. And here the Mishnah notes, "ve'ein zo ba labayis": this cow is never brought inside at all, for its entire service is conducted outside the Beis Hamikdash. Since the animal never enters the place the verse speaks about, Rebbi Eliezer maintains that nothing here renders it unfit.
Blemishes
"Kol hamumim haposlim bamukdashim, poslim baparah": every blemish that would render a consecrated animal unfit for the Mizbeach likewise renders the parah adumah unfit. The standard of physical wholeness demanded of a korban is demanded here as well.
Actions that ruin the cow, and actions that do not
The Mishnah now lists cases in which a person made use of the cow, so that it was, in effect, put to work:
- "Rachav aleha": he rode on it.
- "Nishan aleha": he leaned his weight upon it.
- "Nisla biznava": he suspended himself by holding its tail.
- "Ovar ba es hanahar": he used it to get himself across a river.
- "Kipah aleha es hamoseira": he folded the lead rope over it.
- "Nasan taliso aleha": he laid his cloak upon it.
In all of these, "psulah", the cow is disqualified.
By contrast: "aval ksharah bimseira", if he simply tied the cow up with its rope; "asah lah sandal bishvil shelo tachalik", if he fitted it with a sandal so that its hooves would not slip; "paras taliso aleha mipnei hazvuvim", if he spread his cloak over it to shield it from the flies. In each of these cases, "ksherah", the cow remains fit.
The principle
"Zeh haklal", says the Mishnah, and offers the single principle that accounts for both lists. Anything done "ltzorcha", for the cow's own requirements, leaves it "ksherah". Anything done "ltzorech acher", to serve some other party's needs, renders it "psulah". Securing the animal with a rope, guarding its footing with a sandal, draping a garment to keep insects away: each of these is done on the cow's behalf. Mounting it, dangling from it, using it to get over water, parking one's garment on it for one's own comfort: each of these is done for the human being, and the animal loses its fitness.
And the standard is a demanding one. If a single act served both the cow's needs and some other purpose at the same time, the cow is disqualified. Only when the act was done purely for the cow's own sake does it remain fit for the avodah of the parah adumah.